A Brief History
On January 4, 2010, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai opened in the United Arab Emirates, taking top honors as the World’s Tallest Building, an honor it still holds. Today, we take a look at some of the tallest man-made structures on the Earth.
Digging Deeper
Burj Khalifa skyscraper, United Arab Emirates, 2717 feet high
Petronius Oil Platform, United States, 2100 feet high
Tokyo Skytree broadcast tower, Japan, 2080 feet high
KVLY-TV antenna mast, United States, 2063 feet high
Canton Tower observational tower, China, 1982 feet high
Abraj Al Bait skyscraper, Saudi Arabia, 1972 feet high
Bullwinkle oil platform, United States, 1736 feet high
Troll A movable natural gas platform, Norway, 1549 feet high
Lualualei VLF transmitter, Hawaii, 1503 feet high
Petronas Twin Towers skyscrapers, Malaysia, 1483 feet high
Question for students (and subscribers): Did you know that until 1966, the tallest building in the world not located in New York City was the Terminal Tower in Cleveland, Ohio? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Al, Stefan. Supertall: How the World’s Tallest Buildings Are Reshaping Our Cities and Our Lives. W. W. Norton & Company, 2022.
Dupre, Judith. Skyscrapers: A History of the World’s Most Extraordinary Buildings. Black Dog & Leventhal, 2013.
The featured image in this article, a diagram by WelcometoJurassicPark comparing the height of Burj Khalifa to other buildings and structures, based on the drawings from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BurjKhalifaHeight.svg and http://www.skyscrapercenter.com, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
